Ask Aunt Foley

Dear Aunt Foley: What is a birthday?  I have one coming up.  Being the first year in my new home I have never celebrated it before.  What am I required to do and what should I expect? Kole

Dear Kole:  A birthday is a wonderful thing.  It is a celebration just for you that occurs on the anniversary of the day you were born, or some date near it because your parents have plans on the actual date, or, in your case, a stray found on the street, a 365-1 guess (366-1 during Leap Years.)

But that makes your birthday even more special.  You see anyone can be born.  I am pretty certain that, except for the cylons, we were all born and have a birthday.  But, like so many of our friends, your family doesn’t know your birthday, so, instead of your birthday just being a trick of nature, it is a gift of love.

There are some pretty big advantages to not having a real birthday..  When you don’t know your exact birthday you don’t know your exact age so you get frozen in time.  You can stay whatever age you want forever.  And you still get a party every year.  Sounds like a mighty sweet deal to me.

When it comes to words like celebrate never question what is going on.  Celebrate always means something good is about to happen. No one celebrates you getting your nuts chopped off, or getting a shot, or getting a bath, except for some sickos on the Ukrainian border and we don’t pay any attention to them.  So when you hear the word celebrate just go with the flow.

Now that your birthday has passed I bet you agree, birthdays and celebrations, especially when they are yours, are pretty special things.